The present invention relates to a color video printing apparatus capable of identifying an ink ribbon cartridge detachably installed in the printing apparatus.
A color video printer and a detachable ink ribbon cartridge for use therein are well known in the art. An ink ribbon cartridge of a double-spool type includes a cartridge housing and supply and take-up spools accommodated in the cartridge housing. As the spools rotate, an ink ribbon wound about the supply spool is fed to the take-up spool and wound thereon.
There are provided various kinds of ink ribbons which are selectively used depending upon a printing operation mode such as multicolor or monochrome mode, a sort of a recording medium used, for instance a photographic paper, a sheet with a laminate film, a sheet adapted for an overhead projector (OHP), or others. Such ink ribbons include a substrate film and a melting or sublimating color layer formed on the substrate film. An ink ribbon For multicolor printing has a plurality of color blocks arranged in series in a spaced relation to each other. Each of the color blocks comprises segments arranged in a predetermined order, for example, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black colors. The segments are in turn printed on the sheet to form a multicolor image thereon.
A printing operation is performed in a sequence determined depending upon a kind of the ink ribbon selected. Therefore, the printer is required to be capable of identifying the kind of the ink ribbon accommodated in the ink ribbon cartridge.
It has been proposed to provide on a cartridge housing of the ink ribbon cartridge an information mark indicating a characteristic of the ink ribbon in order to identify the type of the ink ribbon. One example of the information mark is an optical mark attached to a peripheral outer surface of the cartridge housing. Light reflected on the optical mark is detected by an optical sensor disposed in the printer. Another type of the information mark is a protrusion or groove provided on the cartridge housing. The protrusion or groove is detected by a sensor installed in the printer.
Accordingly, in order to indicate various different pieces of information pertaining to the ink ribbon, a plurality of information marks must be provided on a limited area of the surface of the cartridge housing. Further, since many sensors must be provided for detecting many information marks, the printer necessitates a relatively large space in which the sensors are accommodated.